1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a passenger seat airbag apparatus which deploys and inflates an airbag from an upper side of an instrument panel that is in front of the passenger seat next to the driver's seat and provides cushion protection to a passenger in the passenger seat using the inflated airbag. The present invention also relates to a folded airbag used in the passenger seat airbag apparatus.
2. Background Art
In the related art, a passenger seat airbag apparatus is mounted on an upper side of an instrument panel that is in front of the passenger seat next to the driver's seat (hereinafter referred to as the “passenger seat”), and includes a folded airbag, an inflator which supplies inflation gas to the airbag, and a housing-forming member which surrounds and accommodates the folded airbag (e.g. see JP-A-2000-190798). The housing-forming member includes a case which accommodates the folded airbag and the inflator and an airbag cover which is to be pushed and opened by the airbag that is being inflated. The case is made of a sheet metal having the shape of a substantially rectangular body, and includes a bottom wall section which couples the airbag to the inflator and a cylindrical sidewall section which extends upward from the front, rear, right and left portions of the bottom wall section. The airbag cover is disposed at the circumference of the opening formed in the instrument panel to engage with the circumference of the opening in order to close the opening, and is also coupled to the case using engagement protrusions provided on the sidewall section of the case, in particular, front and rear regions of the sidewall section, or bolt members.
In addition, the airbag is folded so as to be accommodated in the case having substantially the shape of a rectangular case. The airbag is also folded such that a passenger side panel section which forms the outer circumferential wall of the airbag is placed on a vehicle side panel section, the airbag is deployed flat, and both the lateral size and the front-to-back size of the airbag are reduced.
However, in the passenger seat airbag apparatus of the related art, the airbag is folded to a central side in the lateral direction such that the front-to-back size as well as the lateral size of the airbag is reduced from the state in which the airbag is deployed flat. Therefore, the height in the upward-downward direction of the airbag, i.e., the thickness of a folding completed body, is increased. The thickness in the upward-downward direction of the housing-forming member is also increased depending on the thickness of the folding completed body of the airbag.
Accordingly, it is difficult to mount the airbag apparatus in a region of the instrument panel where a upward-downward space is small, for example, a rear edge or a surrounding region of the instrument panel that forms an intersecting region of an upper wall section and a rear wall section of the instrument panel intersect.
Accordingly, in order to solve the above problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a passenger seat airbag apparatus which is easily mounted even if a upward-downward space is small.